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WHY DO JEWISH BOYS & GIRLS MAKE GREAT ASTRONAUTS? Because they were raised by mothers who raised them to believe they are out of this world.

NASA was challenged to find ball point pens did not work in zero gravity. Over $1.2 billion was spent developing a zero gravity upside down underwater on any suface including glass & at temperatures from below freezing to 300 Celsius

When NASA first started sending up the astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA spent a decade and $1.2 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside-down, underwater, on almost any surface, including glass, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 Celsius. The Israelis? They sent their astronauts into space with pencils.

FIRST JEW IN SPACE?: Boris Volnyov commander of Soyuz 5, January 1969

FIRST AMERICAN JEWISH ASTRONAUT: Judy Resnick, mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Discovery maiden voyage, 1984 and then again on the Challenger when the Challenger broke apart shortly after liftoff on its 10th mission. Seems that Resnick was a candle lighting girl. Her rabbi told her candles could be replaced with electric lights set to go on corresponding to Shabbat, home base Houston

FIRST TORAH IN SPACE: Jeffrey Hoffman the first Jewish man in space made sure Torahs were ‘out of this world’ 1996 mission Space Shuttle Columbia.

FIRST DREIDEL SPIN IN SPACE: David Wolf orbited during Hanukkah took advantage of zero gravity to spin his dreidels for a record dreidel spin of

1 ½ hours – $25000 until it got lost in an air filter

FIRST MEZUZOT IN SPACE: In 2008 Gregory Chamitoff placed rocket shaped mezuzot on to the International Space Station door post near his bunk bed.

FIRST KOSHER FOOD EATER IN SPACE: Ilan Ramon an Israeli payload specialist astronaut on the Space Shuttle Columbia requested kosher food in space. Ilan asked a rabbi how to observe Shabbat while in orbit. Ilan died with his crew mates when the Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Southern Texas. Ilan carried a microfiche copy of the Bible and a picture of Earth as seen from the moon drawn by a Jewish boy in a World War II concentration camp

BEST BUDS FOREVER: The first Jewish astronaut to live on the International Space Station, Gary Reisman brought a memento from Ilan Ramon’s widow with him